This application relates to the technical field of breath alcohol monitoring, and more particularly to a portable handheld wireless breath alcohol monitoring device that utilizes facial recognition and automatic retesting if an initial test is positive for alcohol or if an initial facial match is negative.
When an offender is convicted of DUI, domestic violence, or another alcohol-related offense, a typical condition of sentencing or probation is that the individual must stop drinking for a specified period of time. To enforce this prohibition, courts have traditionally looked to random testing methods (blood, breath, ethyl glucuronide or EtG) that only showed if the individual was sober at the specific “point in time” the test was administered. Requiring sobriety of substance-involved offenders under correctional supervision has been trending since the 1980s, when the first Drug Court was established in Miami-Dade County, Fla. Over the next twenty-five years, enforcing sobriety for drug offenders became standard operating procedure in programs throughout the country. Random drug testing became the cornerstone of these treatment-focused courts. The overall philosophy of jurisprudence shifted to a focus on treating the addiction and utilizing swift interventions and sanctions for violations.
Alcohol, however, has proven to be more complex than drugs for the courts to manage. Despite the emphasis on drug abuse, alcohol remains the number one drug of abuse in the U.S. corrections system. In fact, it is widely reported that once drug offenders begin random drug testing, they often switch to alcohol as their drug of choice because alcohol may be legally purchased and with standard, random testing the offender can begin drinking right after a test and sober up before the next test.
While drug testing, which is usually done on a random schedule, is relatively accurate and cost-effective, the metabolism of the human body makes monitoring for alcohol far more complex. Alcohol is metabolized in the liver, which eliminates 95-98% of ingested alcohol from the body. No matter the rate of ingestion, it can only be metabolized at a certain rate, which can vary from person to person. A small amount of alcohol, about 1-5%, avoids metabolism in the liver and is excreted, unchanged, through the kidneys (urine), the lungs (breath), or the skin (perspiration).
Healthy people, on average, metabolize alcohol at a fairly consistent rate: one standard drink (or 0.5 ounces of alcohol) per hour. Heavy alcohol users may metabolize alcohol at a significantly higher rate than average individuals.
The result is that it is not just possible, it is probable, that an individual can be tested in the early evening at 6:00 pm or 7:00 pm and then gets very intoxicated when they go to bed at 10:00 pm, yet be completely sober in less than eight hours for their next alcohol test. The more severe the alcohol dependence, the faster an individual may metabolize the alcohol and avoid detection between tests.
Breath, blood, and urine testing are all reliable at testing individuals for alcohol consumption at any given “point in time.” In 2003 transdermal alcohol testing was introduced as a way to test offenders for alcohol, without requiring active participation of the offender, and at a frequency rate high enough to ensure the offender stayed sober all day long. Typically, for transdermal alcohol testing, an ankle bracelet is attached to the offender with a durable and tamper-proof strap. The ankle bracelet is worn 24/7 by the offender for the duration of his or her court-ordered abstinence period. Periodically, such as every half-hour or hour, the bracelet analyzes samples of the insensible perspiration coming off the offender's skin and generates transdermal alcohol readings. The bracelet stores this data and, at pre-determined times, transmits the data to a base station or a monitoring network where the data can be analyzed. The testing protocol is prescheduled and automated, eliminating the offender's ability to manipulate the testing schedule or avoid or delay a request to test. Transdermal analysis and continuous alcohol monitoring (CAM) weren't developed because conventional testing is unreliable. They were developed because offenders who misuse alcohol are unreliable.
Current testing options to enforce sobriety are available on a continuum, from incarceration—the most intense sanction and most costly per day—to ignition interlock, which when installed only tests for sobriety when someone is driving (see FIG. 1).
These testing options range in cost and vary in terms of behavioral risk. Employing an assessment process to determine how to balance supervision and monitoring costs with the risk level of each offender is essential to a successful alcohol testing and monitoring program. Lower risk offenders who misuse alcohol may be assigned a less intrusive and less expensive testing and monitoring approach. High risk offenders who are alcoholic dependent or addicted may be assigned a more intrusive, vigorous, and expensive testing and monitoring regimen. Upon successful performance over a several month period of time, high risk offenders may be rewarded for their good behavior by being transitioned to a more convenient, less intrusive, and less expensive testing and monitoring approach.